Loki watched Fey as she went through his books. He frowned as he thought.
"Why do you remain in my company when you have a good heart?"
"What makes you think my heart is good?" came the gentle reply.
"You are interested in history, you take care of your appearance, you appreciate beauty…" he trailed off.
She looked up, surprised at his choice of qualities associated with goodness. "Do you not also?"
Silence. Then, "You paid that man."
She thought on his concerns. "One must first understand great darkness before they can understand beauty. Small children do not look at the ocean and see it is beautiful. They are too pure." She paused. "My heart is neither bad nor good. It just is."
Loki seemed to relax somewhat. "I feared you were here because you wished to change me."
She smiled. "I see no need to fix a thing that isn't broken."
Green eyes narrowed again, but he said nothing to that. Instead, he said "Stay with me tonight."
This was met with a frown. "Excuse me?"
A vicious smile crawled across his face. "You seem to enjoy my company so much. Stay."
She shook her head, simply. "I'm not interested."
His smile became a leer. "Because you are a man? You should know that matters not to me." His eyes sparkled with mischief now.
She seemed to find this amusing rather than surprising. "I was born a woman, actually, though these days I take whatever shape I please. I am not interested."
He frowned. He had been so sure he had guessed right. He shifted in frustration. "Why not?"
Confusion started to edge into the girl's mind as she sought out the true reason for his questioning. "Why are you pushing this? There is a whole city of women, or men, who would be happy to be with any of your strong, heroic fighter disguises."
His eyes darted away angrily but he held his tongue. His silence gave him away.
"What?" she asked, as a thought crawled into her head. "…Do you have trouble maintaining the illusion or something?"
Once again, his silence was answer enough. She quietly chuckled to herself and he glared daggers at her. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just amused it took me so long to see the obvious answer. Let me think."
She turned back to the bookcase and started going through it again. Loki sighed and lay back on his bed. He'd almost started to convince himself he had imagined the whole conversation when Fey spoke up.
"I could help you." She stated, from out of nowhere.
He rolled his eyes. "Please, elaborate so I don't get the wrong idea." His words dripped with sarcasm.
She blushed furiously. "Not like that…"
"I know!" He rubbed his head aggressively.
She stayed silent.
He sighed and sat up to face her, face an acceptable version of apologetic. "Sorry, continue please."
"I could hold your illusion while you're out."
frowned as he processed this. Hmm. "How good are you?"
She grinned, an expression of mischief to rival his own. "The baker was me."
